General Practice Use of Near-patient Testing, Australia, 1994

Near-patient testing (NPT) is defined as 'an investigation performed by or on behalf of the treating doctor on-site, at the time of and for use during the consultation'. General practitioners and their patients, utilising this technology in Victoria, were surveyed by anonymous questionnaire to determine clinical usage, costs and attitudes associated with NPT. The study employed three questionnaires. The first questionnaire was the 'Practice questionnaire' which requested information on demography, clinical usage, equipment costs and attitudes of doctors using NPT, and one 'Practice questionnaire' was filled out by the approved pathology authority (APA) of each practice included in the study. The second questionnaire, the 'Doctor questionnaire', requested information on clinical management relating to each consultation and at which a cholesterol test was performed. The third questionnaire, the 'Patient questionnaire', requested information on demographic data, costs to the patient and attitudes of the patients attending the consultation. Doctor and Patient questionnaires were coded in pairs, according to consultation. Background variables for patients included: family income, marital status and education. For doctors (APA's), demographic variables included: postgraduate qualifications, institute of graduation, vocational registration status, time in general practice, number of full-time doctors in practice, and total number of patients per week. All respondents were asked to record their age, sex and area (eg rural/provincial/metropolitan).
There are three files included in this study, they are as follows:
General Practice Use of Near-patient Testing, Australia, 1994: Practice File
General Practice Use of Near-patient Testing, Australia, 1994: Patient File
General Practice Use of Near-patient Testing, Australia, 1994: Doctor Encounter File